At Home With Mum in Zagreb

I had not been in Zagreb in winter since I left for England in 1988. I was always able to choose the time of year for my visits, and it was always spring or late summer, when the weather in Zagreb is nice, but not too hot. However, lately my Mum has been poorly after a stroke, so in mid January I decided I had to make a short, unplanned visit to see her. She is recovering well, and we had a lovely time together. It was bitterly cold with freezing temperatures going down as far as -12 degrees Celsius, but I took it in my stride and managed to enjoy winter in my beloved native town.
My Mum lives in Tresnjevka, the biggest area of Zagreb, only a few tram stops from the city centre. She lives in a house she had had built in the 1990s.
I wanted to spend all my time with Mum and didn't plan on going out to take photos. I didn't even bother to take my DSLR with me; I only packed my little compact Sony. One afternoon, while my Mum was having a nap, I nipped out and took a few shots of the area around the house. I also have some pics I took on my local shopping trips. In this post I'm sharing my favourite photos that sum up my brief stay with Mum.

The lovely log burner in my Mum's living room/kitchen. It was life and soul of our days creating a toasty and cosy atmosphere and adding magic to the cold  wintery days.

A little cul-de-sac branch of the street my Mum lives in, called "Nova cesta" (New Road). It is a quiet place behind a primary school. I like it particularly because it looks like it belongs to a village, whereas it is not far from the centre of a big and bustling city.

Nova cesta Street (New Road Street) is a very long street that changes its appearance greatly from wide and very busy stretches to quiet and narrow ones like this one. On the left there is the school behind which my Mum lives. This is always my way home coming back from either town or local shops.

A typical block of flats at Zagreb's Tresnjevka with a green in front of it.

This is Tresnjevacki trg, the main square of the area. The photo shows Konzum, the supermarket I go food shopping to. I also get off my tram here on my way back from town. The colours were lovely on this sunny winter afternoon.

My Mum is lucky to live just a three minute walk from Tresnjevacka trznica (market). It is one of the great city's outdoor markets surrounded by shops and kiosks, where you can buy virtually everything; as Croats would say - everything " from needle to locomotive". I love it here because it is one of the best places to experience the spirit of the city and indulge in getting what is traditionally Croatian. I always make sure to buy a few Croatian goodies to take back with me to England. The two photos above were taken on a misty and extremely cold morning; the sellers were covering their produce with blankets trying to keep it from getting frozen. I felt sorry for them, the more so because the freezing weather made a lot of people choose to buy their fruit and veg at the supermarket across the road.

Part of the Julije Klovic primary school. My Mum's house faces the rear of the building. Incidentally, the school was founded in 1962, the year I was born in, but I didn't go to school here as we lived in a different part of the city. It was a sunny afternoon when I took this photo, but so very cold with the old iced up snow glistening in the sunlight. I remember I could hardly feel my camera between my fingers.

The attractive, recently renovated chimney of Tresnjevacka toplana (heating plant). Its white plume of smoke on cold days indicates that heating is working well in the area. Love seeing the red and white stripy top of the chimney with its puffy, white smoke against blue sky.

This is the small park behind my Mum's house. I love it; there is nothing like living next to a little peace of nature. The park is beautiful in summer, of course, enveloped in the green foliage of trees, but it had a special magic charm on this sunny, winter afternoon.

The back of my Mum's house (the red one) and of the lovely neighbour's house (the blue one). I like the colours of the two houses together and the way they stick together, just like their inhabitants do. I may be a little partial but I do believe these two are the nicest houses in the street.

The warm low sunlight was painting everything in beautiful colours that afternoon....the whole world was beautiful..... it was a winter wonderland for me......

A row of brown winter hydrangea against the wall of a long and short building made me smile (I am a sucker for hydrangea), together with the little forlorn Christmas tree left out there after recent holidays.

This is the view of the park as we see it from my Mum's house. It is a perfect sight to look at at any time of day and especially to wake up to in the morning.

The unusual three step stairway always draws my attention ....

This is the gate and front of my Mum's house. There is a garage on the left built in front of the house, thus forming a secluded courtyard between its rear wall and the house. I must admit it all looks much more inviting and charming in summer when there are leaves and fruit on the huge fig tree in the yard, vine and grapes overhead inside the gate, colourful roses against the white garage wall and purple passion flower blooming against the wall opposite.

My dear, frail Mum resting with her two gorgeous cats who keep her constant company. I'm missing them all very much and cannot wait to return this summer; by then my Mum will have hopefully returned to full health, and we will be able to go together to all those places we couldn't go to this winter.